Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for collecting various kinds of operation information of network devices including an image forming apparatus (such as a printer or a copying machine) on a network, and managing the information.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, management systems for collecting operation information such as the number of printed sheets, job logs, and status information from image forming apparatuses to be managed such as copying machines, and managing the operating status of the image forming apparatuses have been provided.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-221799 discusses a technique in starting management of an image forming apparatus. Specifically, first, a communication test is performed between an image forming apparatus to be managed and a monitoring apparatus at the same location as the image forming apparatus, and between the monitoring apparatus and a remotely located central management server, respectively. After the communication test succeeds, the monitoring apparatus starts acquisition of data from the image forming apparatus, and transmission of the acquired data to the central management server.
Under present circumstances, in a customer network environment in which network devices including an image forming apparatus to be managed are provided, information about the network devices and the information about the customer needs to be handled with the greatest care. In recent years, security requirements for such information have become important especially in the field of the network device management.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-221799, when the installation of the monitoring apparatus in the customer network and the communication test have been successfully completed, the management of the operation information by the central management server can be started immediately. At the administrator's side, to immediately start the device management on the agreed start date after the customer agrees to a contract about various services of the device management, an operation for preparation such as installation of the monitoring apparatus in the customer network needs to be performed without waiting for the agreement.
However, in some cases, even though various services of the device management are ready to start, the customer may not have agreed to the contract with the administrator's side due to, for example, review of the contents and start date of the services, or the internal approval process of the services on the customer's side.